Mrs. Penley

Title	Cinderella	Yeh-Shen	Rainbow- Colored Horse	Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters	Egyptian Cinderella	Rough-Face Girl	Korean Cinderella
Culture	France	China	Puerto Rico	Zimbaabwe	Egypt	Algonquin Indian	Korea
Good Character	Cinderella	Yeh-Shen	Pio	Nyasha	Rhodopis	Rough-faced girl	Pear Blossom
Bad Character(s)	Stepmother Stepsisters	Stepmother	Brothers	Manyara	Servant girls	Sisters	Mother Sister
Magic Element	Fairy Godmother	Fish	Rainbow- colored horse	Snake	Eagle	Lake water	Frog, sparrows, black ox
Where good character wants to go	The ball	The festival	The contest	The city	Memphis	Across lake to see Invisible Being	Festival
What she/he loses	Glass slipper	Golden slipper			Rose gold slipper		Straw sandal
Transformation	Rags to beautiful clothes	Rags to azure gown			Snake to prince	Scarred face to smooth face	Turnips to fruit and candy
Ending-Good Character	Marries the prince	Marries the king	Marries rich man's daughter	Marries prince	Marries pharaoh	Marries Invisible Being	Marries magistrate
Ending-Bad Character	Lives in the castle	Crushed by rocks		Servant in Nyasha's household

The version we are presenting on this web site is The Korean Cinderella. In this version, the main character is Pear Blossom. She is mistreated by her stepmother, Omoni, and stepsister, Peony. On three occasions, Omoni gives Pear Blossom a task to accomplish which seems to be impossible. First, she is told to fill a cracked jug with water. A frog helps her by plugging the hole. Then she is told to polish a huge sack of rice. This time, a flock of sparrows helps her. Last, she is told to weed the rice paddies. A black ox comes and quickly munches the weeds. Then he transforms a basket of turnip tops into fruit and candy so that Pear Blossom can go to the festival. On the way to the festival, Pear Blossom loses one of her straw sandals in a stream. The magistrate sees the beautiful Pear Blossom as she runs off and he finds her sandal. At the festival, the magistrate announces that he will marry the owner of the shoe. He finds Pear Blossom and marries her. They live happily ever after, with a dozen pear trees in their yard.

Students in our class have been working on HyperStudio projects depicting different scenes from The Korean Cinderella. They also created links to descriptions of the scene that they drew. Finally, students wrote responses to the story, choosing from poetry, journal entries, quiz questions, or a new ending. In Writer’s Workshop, students are writing original fairy tales, including many of the fairy tale elements we discussed on our chart. We are currently reading Reader’s Theater versions of The Rough-Face Girl and Cinderella. We’ve had a lot of fun reading and comparing Cinderella stories and will continuing sharing new versions throughout the school year.

Illustrations

Pear Blossom's father planted a pear tree when she was born. Pear Blossom grew up with the tree. The more beautiful the tree got the more beautiful Pear Blossom got. In the spring, the tree had blossoms. In the summer, the tree was full of pears. In the fall, the leaves change red, orange and yellow. In the winter, the tree was bare.

The frog helped Pear Blossom by plugging the hole for Pear Blossom, so she could fill up the jug.

I drew a picture of some sparrows. But they weren’t regular sparrows. They were magical. They helped Pear Blossom separate the rice.

I drew the magistrate looking at Pear Blossom run away. She lost her shoe when she ran away. But she got to marry him because he found it.

Pear Blossom likes living with the prince. They like each other. She likes the palace. She felt good to be married.

Poetry

Pear Blossom
was as kind as a bird.
She did all of her chores, and ranched the fields.
When she ranched a field,
an ox ran by and ate all the grass.
When she was outside
staring at the ox
eating the grass,
it ran away.

Pear, Pear Blossom, Blossom,
Where is my Pear Blossom?
Will you come back my Pear Blossom?

Parent
Evil
Asks for help
Rude sister

Black ox eats the weeds
Leaky jug
Only one frog
Sandal fell off
Swallows polished the rice
Omoni is a
Mean mom

Journals

Dear Journal,

I feel bad that my mother and sister are jealous of me. Anyway, why do I always have to do all the work? I never get a break. My sister always gets the new clothes. I only have one outfit that is all dirty and never gets washed. I have to wash their clothes. I have to make their supper. Right now, I have to go weed the garden. Weeding is very hard especially without one of my sandals. I lost it when I was running from the Magistrate. He saw my sandal in the water. He took it and yelled after me, but I didn’t turn back.

Oh no! He’s at the gate with my sandal. My mom and sister are coming to try on the sandal. Maybe he won’t see me. I just wish they appreciated me. Oh no! He spotted me.

“Hey you, come over her,” he hollered. I better go over there right now. “Try on this sandal,” he said. I tried it on... It fit. What’s he going to do to me? Throw me in the dungeon? “Will you marry me?” he asked.

“Ahh...,” I can hear my sister whispering, “NO, no, no don’t.”

“Yes, I will.”

“Great!” he said.

We both went back to the palace and got married. The End.

Dear Journal,

Pear Blossom is so beautiful! I do not want her to go to the festival if I can help it. If the Magistrate saw her, he would marry her immediately. I’m going to be the most beautiful girl there, if she isn’t there. I am sure I am going to marry someone. Even if she can go, she does not have anything to wear. All she has are rags.

Peony

Dear Journal,

Hi! I’m Pear Blossom, and I would like to tell you a little bit about me. Well, I wanted to go to the festival, but my stepmother wouldn’t let me. Then she said go and cut all the weeds so I did. I was sad. Then an ox came and ate all the weeds very quickly. I could not believe it. It was so amazing. A lot of weird things are happening.

Dear Journal,

My stepsisters are giving me a very hard time! They make me do everything. I wish they knew how I feel. I have to do this: clean their rooms, do the dishes, sweep the floors, wash the windows, sweep the cobwebs, do the laundry, clean the table, cook breakfast. All I get are rags. One time they went to a ball, and I had to get them ready.

Sincerely,

Pear Blossom

Dear Journal,

It’s Pear Blossom. I need help! My stepmother is giving me all these impossible tasks. What should I do? I’m scared.

Dear Journal,

I’m saved. My stepmother first said to bring her a bucket of water. That sounds easy, but it was not because the bucket she told me to use had a hole in it. But a tokgabi goblin, a type of frog, helped me by stopping the leak. Then my stepmother told me to polish every grain of rice, and the worst part was there was a bunch. Then she told me to weed the rice patties. But there were so many! But then an ox helped me.

Sincerely,

Pear Blossom

New Ending:

In the end Pear Blossom had children named Pear Blossom, Jr. and Magistrate, Jr.

Quiz Questions/Answers:

1. What did the mom and dad wish for?
A. To get a dog
B. To have a child
C. To get a new home

2. What did Omoni keep saying to Pear Blossom?
A. You are so beautiful
B. I love you
C. Some day you will get what you deserve

3. What was the first animal that helped Pear Blossom?
A. Frog
B. Horse
C. Cat

4. What animal polished the grains of rice?
A. Ants
B. Sparrows
C. Blue jays

5. What was the third animal that helped Pear Blossom?
A. Kangaroo
B. Pig
C. Ox

6. What happened when Pear Blossom went to the merrymaking?
A. Her stepsister saw her.
B. She fell in the stream.

7. Why were Pear Blossom’s stepmother and stepsister mean to her?
A. They thought she was ugly
B. They were jealous of her beauty.

8. What did Pear Blossom lose?
A. Sandal
B. A basket of fruit
C. A pear

9. Who married the prince?
A. Omoni
B. Pear Blossom
C. Peony

10. Who is the stepmother?
A. Frog
B. Peony
C. Omoni

11. What is Peony like?
A. Very nice
B. Mean
C. Nice

12. Where does Pear Blossom live?
A. Italy
B. Canada
C. Korea

13. Who was the one that weeded the rice paddie?
A. Dog
B. Pony
C. Ox

14. What kind of tree did Pear Blossom have?
A. Apple tree
B. Pear tree
C. Pine tree

15. Who found Pear Blossom’s shoe?
A. Peony
B. Magistrate
C. Omoni

Answers:1B, 2C, 3A, 4B, 5C, 6A, 7B, 8A, 9B, 10C, 11B, 12C, 13C, 14B, 15B

Learning Standards

The following standards from the Maine Learning Results connect with our Cinderella unit:

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

A. PROCESS OF READING Students will use the skills and strategies of the reading process to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate what they have read. Students will be able to: Select texts for enjoyment. Read a variety of narrative and informational texts independently and fluently.

B. LITERATURE AND CULTURE Students will use reading, listening, and viewing strategies to experience, understand, and appreciate literature and culture. Students will be able to: Demonstrate awareness of the culture and geography pertinent to the texts they read. Use literary pieces to better understand and appreciate the actions of others. Share responses to quality literature with peers, citing reasons and making comparisons to other reading, or viewing, or to life experiences. Identify important characters in quality works containing several characters. Recognize basic elements of plot and recount events, ideas, and important details from material read, heard, or viewed. Apply effective strategies to the reading and interpretation of fiction Demonstrate understanding of enduring themes of literature